Lawrence Rhys Holden
Colonel Lawrence Rhys Holden (SN: 51773-11469-LH), also known as Code name: HALLOWED KING and Code name: BANQUO to Office of Naval Intelligence agents, was an field-grade commissioned officer in the UNSC army and an field officer in ONI Section One before and during the Human-Covenant War. Rhys became highly respected during his military career and volunteered as a candidate for the ORION Project in 2494, three years after its reactivation. Rhys was known to dislike using his first name and preferred to be called by his middle name by his friends. In addition to various Warthog variants and the Mongoose ATV, Rhys was trained to operate the [http://www.halopedia.org/Scorpion M808 Scorpion Main Battle Tank] (and the M808B variant), the [http://www.halopedia.org/M850_Grizzly M850 Grizzly Main Battle Tank], the [http://www.halopedia.org/SP42_Cobra SP42 Cobra Main Battle Tank], the [http://www.halopedia.org/M9_Main_Anti-Aircraft_Tank M9 Wolverine MAAT], the [http://www.halopedia.org/AV-14_Hornet AV-14 Hornet Attack VTOL], and the [http://www.halopedia.org/AV-22_Sparrowhawk AV-22 Sparrowhawk Attack VTOL]. Rhys was a respected leader during the Human-Covenant War, and he helped contribute to many UNSC triumphs during the course of the War, distinguishing himself in many conflicts such as the Fall of Reach, the Battle of Earth and the Battle of Installation 05. Holden was also key in providing ONI with intelligence that aided the UNSC's war-time efforts. Holden was awarded with the Colonial Cross, a Prisoner Of War Medallion, a Silver Star, four Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts, and, posthumously, a Legion of Honor. Childhood (2472-2488) Lawrence Rhys Holden was born in New Cardiff, Argyre Planitia, Mars to David and Mari Holden. Holden grew up as the middle child in a family of two boys and one girl. Rhys and his brother, Caleb, were quite close in age and were very close to each other for the majority of their early years. Rhys was known to do most things alongside his brother and the two were seldom seen separated. Rhys' sister, Sophie, was the eldest of the Holden children, as was off to university before Rhys or his brother were even in kindergarten. Deciding to deviate from her army roots, she became an air force officer. Sophie would later meet Holden again during the early stages Human-Covenant before she was killed in action. Grantchester Academy of Military Science (2488-2491) In 2488, Holden and his brother were entered into the Grantchester Academy of Military Science as his father, a retired major, had planned on having his sons continue his family's military traditions. Rhys was accepted into the academy's pre-enlistment training at age 16 (as was the usual age for the academy). His brother followed him into the academy a year later. During his training in the academy, Holden learned various tactics and large scale strategies that were used by great generals, and more importantly: why the tactics worked. Also a part of his studies were common tactics used in current military units. In addition to leadership courses, Holden took part in many separate training courses including airborne, grenadier, electronic warfare, drop pod usage, mountain warfare, CBRN defense, numerous vehicle piloting courses, and sniper school. These were all taken in addition to basic, combatives and infantry training. Early Military Career (2491-2493) Rhys began his career right out of Officer Candidate School, and began working with Army soldiers in things such as training exercises, patrols and police actions alongside specialist police teams. He quickly became a favourite around the barracks, and in the second year of his career, he was looked up to by many new recruits due to his helpful nature. As his first years in the service were notably dull, mostly because the insurrection hadn't started open conflict until 2494, most of his time was spent organizing drills and constructing courses for the men to run through to keep their skills sharp. Due to his father's prestigious rank before his retirement, he was able to pull strings and get Rhys into Special Warfare Group One after the second year of service. During this time, Rhys also fell out of contact with his brother, who was stationed in a barracks located at Mare Erythraeum, though they would later meet again during the Human-Covenant War. ORION Project and the Insurrection (2493-2525) Read more about the ORION Project and the Insurrection After his transfer to Special Warfare Group One in 2493, Holden was quickly seasoned by operating on numerous deniable operations and high-risk missions. These missions caught the eyes of ONI personnel who had rebooted the ORION Project four years earlier, and wanted special forces officers in the program. After a year in Special Warfare Group One with consistently successful missions, they recommended his reassignment. Following this, Holden was approached by his Commanding Officer and decided to volunteer for the ORION Project. Once Holden was selected for the ORION Project, he was augmented to increase his cognitive, physical and psychological attributes. However, these augmentations had a high risk of causing harm and many soldiers in the later groups were physically and/or mentally unstable afterwards, with many forming illnesses. Holden made it through the augmentations without any major complications. Holden was one of the few Army men in the project, as it was mainly populated by Marines and Naval crewmen. All of his squadmates joined him in volunteering but only two others were selected. However, even though they were selected and assigned to ORION, Holden was rarely assigned to the same squad as them. In addition, Holden and the other candidates seldom received commendations or medals due to ORION being a deniable operation. During his time in the ORION Project before its deactivation, Holden became a renowned leader among the enlisted soldiers and made many connections with ONI personnel which would later get him a position within ONI Section One. Also during his time in ORION, he worked with many CQC specialists, marksmen, demolitions experts and learned many skills that would come in handy in the future. Though much of his time in the ORION Project was a learning experience, he also committed acts that conflicted with his morals during some of the anti-insurrectionist operations. One notable mission involved the UNSC assault of an insurrectionist stronghold in 2494, staffed by approximately two hundred men and women, that was carried out by Holden's company and an armoured platoon. Early in the engagement's time line, the commanding officer was killed in action, forcing Holden to step in as the acting CO. The young lieutenant managed to maintain effective communications with both his company and the armoured platoon, and coordinated them proficiently and sustained low casualties while taking over the stronghold. After this event, Holden was promoted to First Lieutenant. Operation: CHARLEMAGNE (2496-2497) ''Read more about Operation: CHARLEMAGNE As the UNSC had predicted, the insurrection had grown fast and became an open conflict. The Insurrectionists had executed kidnapping and assassination operations to attack the UNSC and in retaliation, the UNSC deployed spartans on a covert mission under the shadow of a naval battle over Eridanus II. The spartans were tasked with retaking a sub-orbital transit station, likely for use of the Marines for fast transportation to the surface. Due to being one of the few officers in the program, Holden was put in charge of a team of spartans during the assault. He and his team made use of their extra-vehicular training and entered the transit station through a maintenance hatch air lock. Once they were inside, Holden split his team to cover more ground and make use of multiple "shadow" teams. During their capture of the station, the UNSC navy was keeping potential reinforcements busy, thus allowing the spartans to take the station quickly. The operation was a success, with only one casualty among the Spartans and a complete takeover of the sub-orbital transit station, however, the navy fared worse, losing four destroyers during the mission. Operation: CHARLEMAGNE showed the effectiveness of the Spartans and ensured the continuation of the project for a few more years. Holden was commended by his superiors in the program, however he was not recognized officially as ORION was a black operation. Though one could argue that impressing and being introduced to key members of the Office of Naval Intelligence was all the recognition that a black ops soldier needed. Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE (2502) Read more about Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE Continuing in the campaign against the Insurrection, the UNSC authorized Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE. This operation was carried out by numerous ORION agents who had been deployed on different planets to assassinate notable individuals within the Insurrection's structure, political or military. Holden and his "wingman", Second Lieutenant McLeod, were sent to Cygnus to assassinate a high ranking military leader of the insurrectionist forces. As the planet was in the midst of heavy fighting, they planned on using the UNSC ground forces to support them while they assaulted the leader's camp. Although the operation caused a great deal of disruption in the insurrectionist organizations, the goal was to scare the insurrectionists into surrender, which it failed to do. This failure was not a complete loss, as the rebels were more disorganized for a time after the events of KALEIDOSCOPE. Operation: TANGLEWOOD (2505) Read more about Operation: TANGLEWOOD Deactivation of ORION (2506) Read more about ORION Project deactivation After the deactivation of ORION, Holden was recruited by the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Operation: TREBUCHET (2513-2524) Read more about Operation: TREBUCHET In 2496, the UNSC began Operation: TREBUCHET, however it was not until 2513 that Holden was officially participating. The operation was a series of missions designed and executed in response to multiple rebel uprisings throughout the outer colonies, notably the Eridanus Rebellion and in the Epsilon Eridani System (one of such missions was Operation: CHARLEMAGNE). Although initial operations were unsuccessful in locating the rebel bases, in 2513 the operation turned into open conflict. The operation spanned thirty one years, with battles throughout many colonies, and ending with massive casualties on both UNSC and Rebel sides, as well as civilians. The operation intended to put the colonies "back in line" by asserting UNSC authority through aggressive tactics. This was met with understanding by the civilian populace at first, but when the operation was still ongoing by the 2520's, the operation became widely disliked by UNSC citizens. One of the most notable planets on which TREBUCHET was carried out was Eridanus II of the Eridanus System, on which Holden commanded many joint missions with other branches, usually air force units. Most deployments saw Holden and his command platoon engaging ten to twenty insurrectionists at a time, either in taking over outposts, rescuing hostages or clearing bomb sites. He would also send his other platoons to take care of similar goals or to work conjunction when against more numerous hostile units. Holden and his ODSTs were often sent behind enemy lines to set up camps, from which they would coordinate raids to support marine assaults. In 2513, Holden participated in a deployment meant to reinforce a platoon of marines against a large group of rebel infantry. He and his team were meant to be deployed via pelican, with the support of an army AV-14 Hornet, to the marine platoon's location with the intention of pushing back the enemy through numbers. The initial plan failed, and the army Hornet escorting the pelican was destroyed by anti-aircraft fire, and the pelican itself was shot down. With almost a third of the unit's initial manpower either dead or not capable, and being shot down almost two clicks away from the planned landing zone, Holden was hard pressed to complete his objective. After his team radioed command to request transport, they ordered Holden and his men to stand down and wait for evac. Holden refused to leave the marines behind and, as they were unable to acquire a vehicle for their purposes, he and his ten other ODSTs walked to the last known location of the marines. Once they arrived, the majority of the marines had fallen, and Holden's team came under attack. As Holden's men made a stand against the overwhelming rebel forces, they had started running dry on ammo, and both the ODSTs and the marines were losing soldiers fast. Eventually, a vulture that was being rearmed and refuelled during their deployment was back on duty, and was able to reinforce them and force the rebels to retreat. Suffering massive casualties, Holden and his only surviving soldier became mentally detached for a time, with the survivor resenting Holden for getting the squad killed by disobeying orders. As his orders almost completely destroyed his team and because he disobeyed orders to retreat, Holden was shortly after reduced in rank down to First Lieutenant. By 2520 Holden had engaged in some of the bloodiest battles of the operation, having took part in full scale conflicts with multiple divisions and cross-branch task forces. Around this time, the operation became very unpopular with civilians in the colonies, and were pushing to end the conflict. They would not succeed, however, and the operation continued as planned. Like the civilians, many soldiers became disenchanted by the ever-increasing amount of time that the operation was taking. Holden kept up the image of believing in the mission to set an example for his men, but he began to doubt the effectiveness and goals of the operation. Though his efforts were not wasted by any means, his men were exhausted by the amount of "hot drops", or drops into an active battle that they were performing, sometimes with only hours of rest in between. Holden was also promoted back to Captain in 2519 after his "campaign" of raids on the rebels, which proved to be instrumental in the UNSC's operations across Eridanus II, and was transferred to the Epsilon Eridani System shortly afterwards. Holden was transferred to the Epsilon Eridani theatre of Operation: TREBUCHET due to his successes at Eridanus II, and planned to deploy a similar tactic against the rebels on Tribute. However, the rebels he faced on Tribute were less aggressive and would use terror tactics to combat the UNSC, which made finding a drop zone with enough rebel activity to justify dropping a SOEIV pod difficult, thus ending his raid operations. Now mostly tasked with counter-terrorist operations, Holden's big battles were over for the most part during his time in the Epsilon Eridani System. His missions involved assassinations, hostage rescues and recovery of resources, such as ammunition and intelligence. These missions were not unlike the Assault on Tribute. In 2524, Holden's parent battalion, the 4th Shock Troops Battalion, was reassigned to the [http://www.halopedia.org/UNSC_Pillar_of_Autumn UNSC Pillar of Autumn]. Gallery File:LRHcharlemagne2.jpg|Holden using a scavenged Spiker during an operation in the ORION project. File:LRHSWG1.jpg|Holden (right) and McLeod (left) during Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE. File:LRHarcadia1.jpg|Holden discussing an operation with a marine sergeant on Arcadia. File:LRHarcadia2.jpg|Holden during a firefight on Arcadia. File:LRHdeltahalo.png|Holden during the Battle of Installation 05. After he was enhanced by the ORION Project, Rhys was transferred from the Army Special Warfare Command to the Naval Special Weapon's authority, and worked as an officer in the ODSTs. From there, he worked as an ODST in many battles ranging from battles in the outer colonies to the invasion of Earth. Holden also became an ONI agent and mainly worked alongside Section One by performing recon and pathfinder missions. Category:SPARTAN Category:SPARTAN-I Category:UNSC Category:Humans Category:ODSTs Category:Aspari Category:People Category:O-6